Until the Darkness Dies
by Dark Jester KID
Summary: An AU fic about the Scissor Twins mainly, isn't finished so you probably don't wanna read it.
1. Prologue

_**Until the Darkness Dies**_

_**Act - 1: Prologue**_

_**"Chou"**_

---------------

"I can't believe this is happening..."

Natalya Burroughs sat in the expansive library of Burroughs Castle with her diary in one hand, and a white feather pen in the other. She silently glanced at the beautiful flames dancing in the fireplace. There were so many things that needed to be learned of, but she was not allowed to speak of them. So she'd chosen to write them down. But there was always one or two 'what if's. What if someone read her diary and discovered the horrible secret of the Burrough's family? What if they ran and told all of the town's people? What if those same, now enlightined, town's people attacked Natalia and her husband, Darcy Burroughs?

What if...

What if...

What if...

.......

But none of that really mattered now. The story needed telling, and she was going to tell it. She looked back to the empty page. It was practically begging for her to write down her darkest thoughts. She took one last look at the fire. And then, placed pen to paper.

"My beloved daughter Annabell died three days ago. Although this pains my heart like nothing else, I know it was for the best. I don't know what horrors would have been unleashed if she hadn't met her horrible fate. Darcy's looking to adopt twins. They can't be but 6 or 7 years old, and the girl has odd aura about her. The boy's pure evil, that's easy to tell, and the same for the girl. But something is different about her. Something that shouldn't be..."

On she wrote. She wrote more of the twins. More of her plans. But mainly, and most importantly, more of the ritual.

She herd the door handle turn and before she could write her true motives, slammed the book shut. She held it close to her chest and leaped to her feet, for fear it was her husband. One of the servants stepped into the dimly lit room. Natalia was stiff although she was trying to command herself to relax. The maid nodded to her, "Ma'am, dinner's ready."

Natalya let out a sigh of reliefe as she spoke without meaning to, "Thank you. You may leave."

The woman nodded once more and then turned on heel. Natalya watched her go, then quickly ran to a door that was around the bookcase she was standing by. She dashed through the door and turned right towards one of the castle's ledges. Very carefully she inched her way along the thin cliff. She climbed thru one library's windows and looked about the hidden books. They were only reached by attempting to move one of the large, heavy bookcases, or climbing thru the window as Natalia had skillfully done. She placed the diary in one the most forgotten corners of the shelves. With her long red hair flowing behind her, she reversed the procedure and dashed down stairs to dinner. All the time praying that what she had written was never discovered.

---------------

_**"Butterfly"**_

**How the fic is read: Fic Title and chap # and title are posted at thr top.Then the Japanese lyrics to Chou.After that comes the fic contents, and finally the english trnslation to Chou.par**

**Clock Tower 3 and all its chara's (C) Capcom**

**The song Chou("Butterfly") and its lyrics (C) Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly which is (C) Tecmo**

**This fan-fic and everything in the game I went and messed with (C) KID (Me) **


	2. Chapter 1: Suicide

_**Until the Darkness Dies**_

_**Act - 2: Suicide**_

_**Chika ni moguri ana wo hori tsudzuketa**_

_**Doko ni tsudzuku ana ka wa shirazuni**_

_**Tsuchi ni nureta suko-pu wo katate ni**_

_**Kimi no ude wo sagasite ita**_

_**Tsugihagi no shiawase wo yoseatsume makinagara**_

_**Kimi no tsuyosa ni ositsubusareteta**_

---------------

Something wasn't right that morning when Ralph awoke. Something horrible was awaiting him. Something dreadful. He layed in bed awhile longer trying to place his finger on what was wrong but failed. Ralph was your normal orphan in every way except mentaly and in terms of luck. He had shoulder length black hair with streaks of blue, green, and red scattered about. His eyes were an unuasally dark black, and he was was pale. He fancied his hair up in a ponytail with a long, red ribbon hanging from it, a red jacket with an interesting flame design on it, white pants, and red boots. It was odd though how he wore black lipstick and had drawn a long black line over his left eye, but no one was going to complain about it to him. No one who was smart or had any desire to live anyway. Ralph had odd obsession with scissors. Or any form of sharp object as a matter of fact. He loved to torture anything that could bleed.

His twin sister, Jemima, was about the same. She almost acted as an opposite to him though. She to had long black hair, minus the other colors, but she chose to wear it in pigtails that formed loops.(After an incident with a blade, however, one of her loops had been sliced in two so she wasn't to fond of taking her hair down because one side of her head, as you could imagine, looked awfully silly.) Her eyes were dark, and her skin paler than his. Jemima wore a fancy oriental style shirt, with a short red skirt, blue high-heels. The black line was drawn across her opposite eye and the ribbon that occupied her hair was blue. Her love for blades and torture were the same as her brother's. Only she didn't share her brother's luck trait and had a number of scars all over her fragile body.

Both Ralph and Jemima had been adopted by the mighty Lord Burroughs and his wife, Natalya. It was to the twins understanding that they'd once had a sister, but she'd died in an unfortunate accident. Not much was ever spoken about her, so Ralph and Jemima decided it was for the best to not ask.

Ralph took it as his duty to make sure Jemima didn't cause to much trouble around the castle, by herself anyways. He usually awoke to her looming over him, impatiently tapping her foot waiting for him wake up, but she had not performed this little stunt today so she was probably finding other uses for her morning. Thus he began his long search for Jemima on the expansive castle grounds. The first place that came to mind was the twin's beloved torture chamber that their beloved "father" had made just for them. Ralph wandered down the secret passages until he arrived at the horrible room, and found it unoccupied. Odd. He tried the kitchen, since Jemima was highly impatient and had to large of an appitite to sit at the table all day and wait for her meals to served. No luck again. Odd. Ralph searched a number of other places before deciding to check the library. The twins both enjoyed reading, usually torture books, but Jemima was always to fidgety to stay seated for too long. It was one of the last places he could think of however. He walked down several stairways, and down many long corridors, before arriving at library's main door. He cracked the door open only a bit. If Jemima was seated for longer than 5 seconds he wanted to see it for himself. Even the tiniest of sounds would get her on her feet and alert so he had to be careful. Ralph looked through the door and was slightly surprised. Jemima was in fact seated in a large, green chair reading a book. Legs crossed and foot tapping quickly in the air of course. But she didn't have a bored look, and her foot wasn't tapping because she wanted to hurry up and get to the next chapter as usual. Jemima looked rather shocked at what she was reading, and her foot was probably waving about because she was under some form of suspense, and most people tend to get jumpy when something big is about to happen. Not the kind of reaction you get from reading a book about decapitating people. Ralph began to creep into the room but the door made a loud, creaky sound. He cursed under his breath at the door as Jemima hopped to her feet, stiff, nervous, and holding the book close to her chest. He tilted his head slightly at her, "Jemima? Are you all right?"

"Fine!" His sister replied almost to quickly. She was nervous, and he could tell easier than anyone. She bit her bottom lip and began to get rather fidgety, which ment she wanted to get AWAY. Ralph looked at the book, "What were you reading, sister?"

"Uh...um...I uh..." She took a couple steps back from him. Now he was sure that his sister was scared out of her witts. What was in the book?

"Let me see it." He hold out his hand, slightly impatient. Jemima was so hard to get through to when she was scared. She flipped the book over to reveal it's cover, "See?" The word 'Diary' could be faintly seen across the books fading frame. Ralph's eye's got slightly wide, "Jemima! Where did you get that? Whose is it?"

"I found it! Honest!" She pointed to one of the bookshelves in the far corner, "It was over there!"

"It's OK, I believe you. Now who's is it?"

"It's.....It's...It's...I gotta go now!" Jemima dashed past her brother, who called out for her to stop but she ignored him. Ralph decided to let her run, she clearly was in no mood to talk about she'd learned. He only hoped it wouldn't get her into trouble...

The next few days were silent ones. Ralph was begining to worry for his sister, she'd become quiet and secluded. He still didn't know what she'd read that day but it'd obviously taken a toll on her. Whenever he tried to ask her what had happened she'd either run away or say it was nothing. He'd eventually consulted his "mother" on the subject, leaving out the part about the Diary. Natalya told him it was just a phase and that Jemima would be over it soon enough. But as the days progressed Jemima wasn't getting better at all, if nothing else she was getting worse. Ralph took notice that she retreated to the highest tower more often than usual. Jemima would always play there as a little girl, or use it as a retreat. Ralph had told himself that he would respect this and leave her be whenever she went up there, but that was becoming to often. He continued to get an eerie feeling that he just couldn't shake. Something was going to go horribably wrong, but he couldn't tell what. It wasn't until he was awoken by his "mother's" screams and sobs that he realized that his feelings were correct.

It was in the middle of the night when he herd her scream. He yawned and sat up in bed, confused. Ralph managed to get his robe on before stepping into the hallway in seeing his "father" go past. He yawned again and followed after. When they both found Natalya, she was crying harder than either had ever seen and several servents were trying to calm her down, but most looked ready to be sick. Darcy ran to her side, "Natalya darling, what has happened?"

Natalya pointed a shaky finger out the open front doors of the castle. What Ralph saw brought him more horror than anything ever before. There before them layed Jemima's disfigured body, face down. Her neck had been twisted and all her bones were broken.

"Jemima has commited suicide!" Natalya managed to choke out through her sobs. Darcy tried to comfort her while Ralph stared at the dead body of his sister.

She'd jumped from the tower.

---------------

_**Deep undeground, I kept digging a hole**_

_**Without knowing where it would lead**_

_**With a dirt-covered eyepiece in one hand**_

_**I searched for your arm**_

_**Scraping together patchwork happiness, and sowing it,**_

_**I was crushed by your strength**_

**Clock Tower 3 and all its chara are (C) Capcom**

**Chou("Butterfly") is property of Fatal Frame 2 which is (C) Tecmo**

**This fic and it's plot is (C) KID (Me) **


	3. Chapter 2: Teleported

_**Until the Darkness Dies**_  
_**Act - 3: Teleported**_  
  
_**Yaketsuki**_  
_**Yaketsuki**_  
_**Hagarenai tenohira no ato**_  
_**Chigireta tsubasa de sitsuku somaru kumoma wo saite**_  
_**Jouzu ni hanebataku watashi wo mitsukete**_

---------------

Alyssa paced about her room. The 15-year old looked about her surroundings and sighed. Being a Rooder was harder than anyone could ever imagine. Putting murdered spirirts to rest isn't all fun and games! The clock laying on her desk read 2:56 PM. She'd survived attacks from people maces, acid, and axes yet she was still alive and healthy. She exited her room and walked the dim hallway to her mum's room, "Mum's out, I don't think she'll mind me messing with portal. Expecially when the Subordinate on the other side's already banished." She stepped into Nancy's room and strode over to the clock, "Now how did it go?" Alyssa began to insert the winding keys, but the clock struck 3 on its own, "Conveneit."She thought to herself. The secret door to the left opened, revealing a small room containing many bottels and a large design drawn on the floor. She uncorked her own bottle of holy water and walked into the room, glancing about to make sure there wasn't anything she might need laying about. After investigating several open books, she splashed holy water onto the symbol. The water fell in crystal like drops before splashing onto the ground. Upon impact energy radiated from the spot and the symbol began to glow. Satisfied, Alyssa stepped into the center of the portal shut her eyes tightly as she felt the powerful energy carry her away.

How could this have happened? Ralph stared at the cold, grey ceiling. Tears were begining to form in his dark eyes but he refused to cry. Why had Jemima, his dear sister, his only true remaining family, taken her own life? Just what had been going on? What had she read? A part of him wanted to know, another was afraid. He feared if he read the book, he to would be driven to the same madness. Memories flashed in his mind. Memories of Jemima as the happy child she'd always seemed to be. He'd only seen her cry once. That was years ago when they were children. Jemima had broken one of his blades, his pride and joy at the time, and he'd lost control of his temper and yelled such hurtful things at her. She'd always been sensitive. The poor girl had taken every word to heart and cried all night, thinking that he really hated her for her clumsy mistake. He remembered her choked sobs, and then remembered her dead. Her mangaled body laying motionless. Oh God had he ever said he was sorry for being so cruel? He felt a tear run down his cheek, but put up little resistance. Was it his fault Jemima had jumped from her sanctuary and to her death? The tears were falling freely now. Had he really been so horrible to her, and then what she read pushed his dear sister to her limits? Oh how he wished he was just dreaming. Just a horrible nightmare that he'd do anything to wake up from. He closed his eyes and imagined the scene. He'd wake up, and there standing over him would Jemima, tapping her foot with an impatient look. She'd scold him for sleeping in so often and drag him from his comfortable spot. Ralph opened his eye's. No Jemima. No click of her heels. No silly complaining. He'd wished so many times that she'd leave him be in the mornings, yet now he wanted her there more than ever. Ralph cried as he remembered her laughing, her dead, her taunts, her dead, her apoligizing, her dead. It felt like a part of him was missing, and how he longed for it to return. Jemima'd never cried for her parents as a child, she'd always run to him. She _depended _on him. She'd always trusted him to be there for her. He was her older brother, if only by a couple moments, and he was supposed to _protect _her! Now she was dead. He'd failed her. She couldn't depend on him to help her. She couldn't trust him to have run over and stopped her. She couldn't have hoped that he'd grab her hand just as she fell and save her from her horrible fate. He hadn't protected her! He'd failed Jemima! Ralph rolled onto his side and hugged himself for comfort, "I'm sorry, Jemima. I'm so sorry." was all he could choke out through his sobs.

Alyssa looked about her new, unfamiliar surroundings. This wasn't right. She was supposed to be in a torn up alley, not a castle! What was she duing here? The Rooder looked to her feet to splash the water back on the portal so she could go home. Alyssa gasped as she realized the portal was no longer there! Okay so she was gonna be stuck here for a very long while, no biggie. She skimmed the area once more. It was apparent that she was no longer in her own time period, way back in the medieval ages probably since she was in a castle and all. The ceiling appeared to be several feet above her, with several interesting designs painted upon it. Stone statues lined the walls and her refelction was clearly visible in the floor. In the center of the large, seemingly pointless room, was an endless spiral staircase. Alyssa hesitantly walked closer, trying to see how high it went, but it appeared that in went on pass the distant ceiling. Once more she turned and noticed three doors. One to the West, South, and East. Before she could make a selection of which one to choose, the East door opened. The school girl froze and looked for a place to hide, but none was available. She had to admit she felt rather stupid standing int he middle of such a large, expansive room doing absolutely nothing, but the maid didn't seem to notice her. Alyssa took careful note that since her outfit was green, and everything else was either white or grey, she'd stick out rather well. So she decided she was invisible to the people of this era. Alyssa let out a sigh of reliefe, and the maid instantly froze in position. Alyssa stood dead still as the women looked in her direction, "... I'm hearing things. Loosing my mind over the whole matter. Can't let it get to me. Gotta focus." She spoke to herself with an odd amount of worry. The Rooder instantly picked this up. What was this lady muttering about? The maid exited the room through the West door and Alyssa followed after. Maybe she wasn't here by accident. The unknown woman scurried up many stairs and rounded many corners, unaware of her follower. Alyssa watched her walk down a long a narrow hallway. She took note that there was only one door, as far as she could see, and that was to the left. The woman took in a deep breath before seemingly gathering the courage to knock on the door. There came no reply, but the maid spoke anyway, "Master Ralph? Dinner is being served." She hesitated before adding, "I'm terribly sorry for the loss of Miss. Jemima." She stepped back from the door and retraced her steps back down the stairs. Alyssa, however, did not follow. The young girl stood there for a moment before approaching the same door. She examined it quickly and reached for door knob. Locked. She jumped back as the door was slowly opened, and as her eye's met that of Ralph's. Once more she froze. Calm down girl, he can't see you. Breath in, breath out, "Who are you?" Alyssa gasped and backed away. He can see me! He can see me! He can see me! The boy looked her up an down, "Where did you come from?"  
"You can see me?!" She blurted out. Well I'm sure he can now...  
"Of course I can." He raised an eyebrow at her and crossed his arms. She was an odd one.  
"Er...Um..."Way to go Alyssa, you're making a great first impression, "I'm Alyssa, and I'm not from around here obviously."  
Ralph said nothing. She reminded him of Jemima, in an odd sort of way. Both of them never thought before they leaped. He felt sorrow taking over once more and turned away from the strange girl. She quickly calmed down, and slowly everything fell into place. There had to be a subordinate of some sort around. They'd killed a girl named Jemima, who was somehow connected to this boy. OK she has that much figured out, and now was the time to ask a stupid question, "Um, Ralph, who exactly is Jemima?" Yup, stupid question. For as soon as she mentioned the name the boy had an instant look of pain, which he quickly replaced with anger, "What does it matter to you?" He snapped back. What did it matter? Everyone knew Jemima around here anyway! Alyssa winced, seeing she'd upset him. Which was clearly not a good thing, "I didn't mean to upset you, I'm just highly curious." She quickly replied. She watched as he calmed down slightly, a sad look lingered in his eyes, "It's alright. I guess if you didn't know you couldn't have ment any harm." His voice was suddenly quiet and deppressed, "Jemima was my twin, she..." He struggled with his words, "She commited suicide just a few days ago." Alright, brother and sister, now to find ou-wait...suicide? If Jemima had commited suicide, then there couldn't be a subordinate and she wouldn't be here. Well she couldn't have been dropped here just for sight seeing purposes. This had to have been a carefully disguised murder. Ralph spoke again, "Well, Alyssa, you should probably-"  
"Master Ralph whom are you speaking to?" Both turned to see a new figure had appeared. A man dressed in formal clothing stood there and stared at Ralph. Ralph stared back, then looked at Alyssa, then back at the man. Alyssa again, the man, "But..." He watched the schoolgirl wave her hand in front of the stranger's face to indicate she couldn't be seen. Was he going insane? Seeing strange girls appear and talk to him certainly seemed crazy. The man tilted his head at Ralph, who quickly spoke up, "It's nothing. Just thinking outloud." He then walked past the two people and turned down a hallway. The person standing next to Alysaa shuddered and pulled his coat around him tightly, "Sure is cold around here." And continued down the hall. Alyssa stood in silence for awhile. She watched Ralph go, then the man leave. Left with no other option, she pursued Ralph. Clearly he played some part in this web of mysteries she was entangled in, and she wanted answers.

---------------

_**Burned on **_  
_**Burned on**_  
_**The inerasable scars left by the palms of my hands**_  
_**Sever a rift in the red-stained clouds with my torn wings**_  
_**See, I can flutter better than you thought **_

**Please note: This fic is one of those "Alternate Universe" kinda things. Alyssa has never encountered the Scissor Twins, nor has Lord Burroughs tried to steal her heart. We shall pretend he went after some other unfortunate school girl. I know Jemima did not commit suicide originally. I read their little book atleast 50 times. Her and Ralph were killed by an angry crowd armed with rocks. I do know Lord Burrough also had a son named William or something like that, and I don't really care. He's dead to so we don't care about him, but it's probably better to pretend he never excisted. He was so rarely mentioned in the game, only once actually, that even if he did star in this fic no one would know who he was. So if you have any further concerns as to why someone is not appearing, why things are different, why I'm messin with the castle layout, you can keep your damn opinions to yourself because this is MY Alternate Universe and I say shut the hell up. Do have a pleasent day =)**

**Also note: That no cruelty was ment in the above paragraph, I'm just very tired(It's currently 1:42 AM) and have no desire to hear complaints on my ideas and opinions. Again, do have a pleasent day =)**

**Clock Tower 3 and all its chara (C) Capcom**  
Chou("Butterfly") is property of Fatal Frame 2(Project Zero 2) and is (C) Tecmo**  
This fic and its storyline and related ideas are (C) KID (Me)**


	4. Chapter 3: Open Your Eyes

_**Until the Darkness Dies**_

**Act - 4: Open Your Eyes  
**

_**Mayu ni komori egaita eien ha**_

_**Doko ni mebuki hana aku no darou**_

_**Asa ha yagate yami wo tsuremodoshi**_

_**Watashi no hitomi wo ubatte yuku**_

---------------

What to do, what to do, what to do? The young schoolgirl walked about the empty corrodors. She abandoned following Ralph long ago. Even if he was the only person who could see her, he would probably confuse her even more. Really now, she was supposed to solver murder mysteries, not figure out why drove a person to suicide. Alyssa stopped and looked about the hallway, noticing that a change in style had occured. This one was clad more in blue, and had a different aura to it. The redhead thought it best to proceed to the door at the end of the hall, and so she did. After all, the door at the end of the hallway was _always _the right one, right? Carefully, she turned the golden handle and creaked the door open. The flickering light of burning torches snaked it's way through the gap and into the dark room that now lay opened. Alyssa made her way into the room, closing the door behind her. The yellow light was once more banned from the dark room, and trapped behind its stone and wooden barriers. There was another kind of light though, the pale light reflected from the moon's surface, which shone through a window above a small, quiant bed. Specs of dust, of memories, danced about in the eerie display. Alyssa scanned the scene, and decided this was nothing more than a bedroom. Yeah it was fancy, but it was also ragged. A lot like her own room at the time. What caught the girl's eye however, was a darkened dresser perched against an opposing wall. An elegant mirror was displayed above the dresser, but it was cracked and had splotches of...blood on it. Alyssa cautiously apporached the furniture, running a hand gently across it's smooth surface. Blood. She traced afinger along the path to find it leading into a drawer, slightly ajar. Hesitantly, the drawer was opened. Alyssa yelped and fell back on the floor. Had she seen a...? Take another look. Oh yeah, a drawer full of a variety of blood stained blades. Lets pretend we didn't find that shall we? But wait, is there something lurking beneath this deadly surface? Lets find out, OK? Remove one blade at time, not to many or that'll be a nasty cut. Careful, careful. And what's this? A note? How nice. Alyssa sat upon the bed, leaning against the window that loomed over, in order to better read the parchment.

_"Dear Brother,_

_I'm really sorry for the way things have ended up. For years I've kept a list of all the things to apoligize for, like the time I broke your blade. Which I might as well say sorry for now. If you're reading this, something terrible must've happened to me. For I mean to say such things to your face. Brother, Ralph, don't forget our promise. That way, we always know we're together. If you forget, I don't know what I'll do! Actually, I'll give you a nice kick the arse to help you remember.You don't want that do you? Didn't think so. So remember, and forgive me for what I've done. I'm sorry things ended like this._

_Your sister,_

_Jemima"_

A suicide note? No, it wouldn't be hidden, and it wouldn't say 'somethign terrible must've happened.' So she was right. It wasn't a suicide. Jemima must've gotten tangled up in something, but what? Why would someone want to kill her? Alyssa couldn't think of entity that would kill so...cleanly. Now thing's were making some sense. This was murder disguised a suicide, and commited by someone who wasn't a subordinate. Now lets wonder why.

---------------

**_The eternity that I dreamt while confined in my cocoon_**

**_Where will it take seed and blossom?_**

**_The morning will eventually come and bring the darkness back home_**

**_And steal my eyes away from me._**

**Clock Tower 3 and all its chara (C) Capcom  
Chou("Butterfly") is property of Fatal Frame 2(Project Zero 2) and is (C) Tecmo  
This fic and its storyline and related ideas are (C) KID (Me)**


End file.
